TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (T:6502) said on Friday it was considering splitting off part of its chip business, with listing it an option, in a move that would help it raise capital needed to fund restructuring following a $1.3 billion (£863 million) accounting scandal.
Toshiba is in urgent need of restructuring after revealing a number unprofitable businesses. It agreed in October to sell its image sensor business to Sony Corp (T:6758).
Having been placed on a Tokyo Stock Exchange watch list, the conglomerate faces difficulty raising funds through the sale of shares or bonds.
"We would consider selling every asset that is possible to sell," Chief Executive Masashi Muromachi told a news conference.
He said NAND flash memory chips were a core business and would not be sold, which effectively leaves system LSI and discrete chips as options to split off.
NO WESTINGHOUSE WRITEDOWN
In the same briefing, Toshiba stressed that it did not plan to write down assets for its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse despite recent disclosures that the unit itself had booked huge impairment charges in the past.
Analysts have long speculated that the value of assets and goodwill related to Toshiba's 87 percent stake in the nuclear unit has been overstated, especially as the 2011 Fukushima disaster and the U.S. shale boom have reduced the appeal of nuclear power.
Shrugging off such concerns, Toshiba offered a bullish business plan, forecasting combined operating profit at Westinghouse and the rest of Toshiba's nuclear business to grow from 30 billion to 150 billion yen (£16 million - £812 million)over the next dozen years.
"Westinghouse is aiming to win orders to construct 64 reactors worldwide over the next 15 years," said Shigenori Shiga, corporate senior executive vice president.
"We also expect the plant decommissioning business to grow as around 150 reactors are forecast to shut down."
In an interview with Reuters, Danny Roderick, CEO of Westinghouse, said he is "pretty confident" about the outlook.
Of the 64 reactors, he expects 30 to come from China, three from the UK and six to 12 from India.
Shiga told the briefing that Toshiba is still seeking to reduce its stake in the business. "We are in talks with a potential buyer," he said.
Westinghouse has won no orders for new reactors since the Fukushima disaster in 2011.